


The First Rule of Fright Club

by lesbianryuko



Category: BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Halloween, Haunted Houses, Hello Happy World!-centric (BanG Dream!)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26757871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianryuko/pseuds/lesbianryuko
Summary: At a haunted house, the members of Hello Happy World encounter a familiar face.
Relationships: Matsubara Kanon & Okusawa Misaki, Okusawa Misaki & Seta Kaoru, Okusawa Misaki & Tsurumaki Kokoro, Seta Kaoru & Tsurumaki Kokoro
Kudos: 12





	The First Rule of Fright Club

**Author's Note:**

> hi!! this was written for the [bandori seasons zine](https://twitter.com/BandoriZine) for autumn!! it's the perfect time for me to post this, to commemorate the start of spooky season! i love harohapi so much <3

It’s a Saturday evening in mid-October, and Misaki can feel the chill of fall firmly setting in. She buttons up her denim jacket most of the way and pulls her beanie over her ears. It’s cooler now that the sun has mostly set, and the breeze doesn’t help matters, either. Kokoro, of course, is taking all of this in stride.

“Wow! It’s so dark and spooky out! It’s perfect for a haunted mansion!”

Misaki doesn’t think Kokoro completely understands that the haunted mansion they’re going to isn’t actually haunted, that it’s just an attraction with actors and creepy decorations, but she’s long given up trying to explain these things to her. Besides, Kokoro doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything. She looks at everything and everyone as though they’re her best friends, or have the potential to be.

“Yeah!” Hagumi agrees. “I wonder what kind of creatures we’ll see there!” She wrings her hands, which are covered with light gloves that serve more as fashion than warmth. “You don’t think they’ll try to eat us, do you?”

“Of course not!” Kokoro replies confidently as they reach the entrance of Halls of Horror. It looks like an old, abandoned mansion, the kind that are always in horror movies, though Misaki is pretty sure that it was just designed to look that way to add to the atmosphere. Regardless, it’s certainly working; Misaki still isn’t sure if she really wants to go in, but she agreed to come along anyway, if only for Kanon’s sake.

“Mi...Misaki-chan?” Kanon whispers. “We’ll be okay, right?”

Misaki smiles and tries to put on a brave act. “Of course. It’s all fake anyway, and these actors are trained. They know what they’re doing.”

Kanon takes a deep breath, twiddling her fingers nervously. “Okay.”

It’s just the four of them tonight, though Kaoru was invited. _If only I could accompany you on this thrilling adventure!_ she had said earlier, with her signature dramatic flair. _Alas, I have a previous engagement that I must attend to this evening._ Misaki half-suspects that Kaoru just made that up so she wouldn’t have to go through a haunted house. She tries to act brave, and it fools a lot of people, but Misaki has figured out by now that she’s actually afraid of spooky things like bats and monsters. It’s kind of endearing. Kind of.

“I wish Michelle had been able to come,” Hagumi says as they hop into the line to be admitted into the mansion.

“Maybe she and Kaoru-san are both doing the same thing,” Misaki suggests. Her excuse for why Michelle couldn’t come had been vague, because usually that’s all it takes to explain her absence.

Kokoro grins at that. “Oh! If they are, then I hope they’re having a great time!” she says. “Maybe we can trade stories tomorrow at practice!”

The line moves fairly quickly, so they’re at the front and paying the admission before they know it. Instinctively, Misaki takes a few steps closer to Kokoro and Hagumi, and Kanon follows suit, so that they’re all sort of huddled together, like penguins. It makes her feel safer somehow, even though she knows it’s stupid to be nervous in the first place.

Unfortunately, the haunted house is designed mostly for single-file lines, so they can’t group together for long. As they follow the people in front of them into the haunted house, Kokoro takes the lead, naturally, with Hagumi right behind her, Kanon next, and Misaki bringing up the rear. She can’t help the shiver that runs down her spine when they enter the darkness.

As her eyes adjust to the dim light, Misaki can see that they seem to be in some sort of foyer adorned with old furniture, strange paintings on the walls, and cobwebs in every corner. Most of it is inaccessible to them, forcing them to continue their one-way journey, and a pair of actors dressed in old, ripped-up tuxedos reach out to touch them as they pass. Their hands and faces look like rotting flesh, and most of their teeth seem to be either yellowed or gone. “Oh! Hello there!” Kokoro says when one of the men hisses and grabs her shoulder. “You don’t look so good. Are you feeling sick? I know some people who can get you fixed right up!”

“Uh,” Hagumi says worriedly, grabbing onto Kokoro’s other arm and pulling lightly, “I don’t think they want to talk, Kokoron! Let’s keep going!”

Misaki laughs sheepishly as they pass by the men and exit the foyer. Sometimes she wishes Kokoro would just get scared like a normal person; it’s embarrassing to have to drag her away from any enemy or monster because she doesn’t understand the concept of danger.

In the next room, a living area decorated in a fashion similar to the foyer, three “vampires” with razor-sharp fangs and blood running down the sides of their mouths discuss which one of the girls would be the best snack. “I’d take the little one,” one says, grinning and pointing at Hagumi as she follows Kokoro into the next hallway. “Short hair doesn’t get in the way as much.” The vampire makes a slurping sound, and Hagumi covers her neck with her hands protectively. Misaki still can’t figure out whether or not Hagumi realizes that the monsters aren’t real.

As Kanon and Misaki approach the doorway leading into the hall, a fourth vampire jumps out from a dark corner and startles them, hissing and laughing. They both yelp and grab onto each other for safety, then rush into the hallway behind Kokoro and Hagumi. “Th-that was scary!” Kanon whispers.

“Yeah,” Misaki says dismissively, trying not to show that it rattled her. “But it’s fine. None of it’s real.”

The rest of the haunted house proceeds in a similar fashion, with a few jump scares here and there, an assortment of elaborately decorated rooms, and realistic-looking actors dressed up as various spooky characters, from a man with a chainsaw to a mime. Kanon and Hagumi seem to be enjoying themselves despite the frightening atmosphere, which might be due in part to Kokoro’s antics. She still hasn’t quite grasped that the “monsters” are supposed to be malicious and scary and certainly not friendly.

“Ooh!” she says to the man with a chainsaw as he revs it up threateningly. “That’s a really big chainsaw! I bet you can cut a lot of wood with that!”

“Wood’s not the only thing I use it for,” the man replies ominously.

“Oh, I bet!” Kokoro says as they pass him and head into the next area. “You could probably cut _anything_ with something like that!”

Despite herself, Misaki laughs and shakes her head. Part of her is thankful for Kokoro’s unwavering positivity—it keeps her spirits light, keeps her from getting too sucked into the mansion’s horrors. Not that she’d ever admit that.

One of the last rooms they enter is an old, ornate-looking bedroom covered in cobwebs. Hanging on the walls are old photographs of a young woman with three children. Misaki can hear the voice of a woman, moaning slowly and laboriously, as if in deep pain, but she can’t figure out where it’s coming from—there’s nothing in the room. Kanon huddles closer to her, glancing back and forth around the room. “What _is_ that?” she whispers.

“I don’t know,” Misaki says. She can hear the voice getting louder and more intense, as if the woman’s pain is worsening.

The lights in the bedroom, already dim, start to flicker on and off. The woman’s voice feels closer, but Misaki can’t pinpoint where it’s coming from. Her heart feels like it’s jumped up into her throat. Then the doors of a closet hidden in the corner burst open, and a tall, ghostly figure jumps out, wailing and crying, a thin veil covering her face.

All four of the girls scream in various states of shock and terror, holding onto each other for protection. Then, after a half second of silence, Kokoro says, breathless, “Wow! You definitely startled us, Ghost! You’re really good at this!”

Misaki feels her heart start to return to its rightful place in her chest. She’s not sure whether to laugh or cry in disbelief.

The phantom woman sighs and puts a hand to her heart. “How flattering,” she says, “but I fear that frightening you has done naught to ease my sorrow.”

“Oh, no!” Kokoro says. “What are you sad about?”

“My children,” the woman replies, “my children were taken away from me. But I suffer a most miserable curse—I cannot leave this house, nay, even this room, to search for them. I wish and wait every night for them to return to me, but alas...they never have.” She puts the back of her hand against her forehead, a gesture Misaki has seen a certain someone perform many times, both in plays and musicals and in casual conversation, when saying something that she thinks is particularly tragic.

 _Wait a minute._ That voice, that manner of speech…

“Well, that’s no fun at all!” Kokoro says with a frown. She glances over at the door to the exit. “I don’t think we can stay for much longer, but I want to help. I want to make you smile!”

The “ghost” sighs again. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I know that you must depart, and so I have a favor to ask of you. If you should stumble upon any of my dear children in your travels...I implore you, little kitten, bring them to me.”

_Little kitten._

Kokoro nods furiously. “Oh! I definitely will! I swear I’ll help you smile again!”

With that, she leads the group out of the bedroom and through the doorway. To Misaki’s surprise, they find themselves not in another room, but outside, stepping into a chilly fall evening. “Whew!” Hagumi says, pulling her gloves out of her jacket pockets and slipping them back onto her hands. “That was scary...but it was really fun!”

“Y-yeah,” Kanon agrees with a tiny smile. “I liked it.”

“Great!” Kokoro says, turning around to face the group. “Hey, hey, Misaki, what did you think?”

Misaki smiles awkwardly. “Oh, uh, I had fun.” It’s true, actually—she _did_ have fun, more than she’s willing to let on—but it still comes out sounding sort of like she’s faking it.

Kokoro, of course, remains oblivious, or seemingly so. “Good!” she says, turning back around and leading them out onto the main street. “It’s too bad that Kaoru and Michelle weren’t here. We’ll have to tell them all about it!”

Misaki bites her lip. _Yeah. Uh. About that._

As they walk, Kanon falls back with Misaki, a few paces behind Kokoro and Hagumi, who are recounting their favorite parts of the evening. “Misaki-chan,” she says quietly. “Did you...notice anything about the...the ghost?”

Misaki raises an eyebrow. “You mean like how she talked and acted a lot like Kaoru-san?”

Kanon breathes a sigh of relief, as if she was afraid she was the only one who had noticed. “Yeah, that. I guess that was the…the ‘previous engagement’ she mentioned.”

Misaki laughs a little. “That girl couldn’t turn down an acting job to save her life.”

Kanon hesitates before nodding at Kokoro and Hagumi. “We’re not going to tell them, will we?”

Misaki shakes her head. “That’s Kaoru-san’s secret to keep. Or give away. We’ll let her decide when the time comes.”

—

The next day at Kokoro’s house, before the start of band practice, Kokoro and Hagumi catch Kaoru up to speed on their exciting night. Misaki hasn’t changed into her Michelle suit yet, so she doesn’t have to pretend like she doesn’t know what they’re talking about, though she’s sure they’ll retell the whole story for her once she’s inside the bear. Kaoru, on the other hand, listens intently to the girls’ descriptions, as if she isn’t intimately familiar with Halls of Horror and all its surprises.

“And then,” Kokoro says, “at the very end, there was this ghost woman who really scared us! But it turned out that she was just lonely and sad. So now I’m keeping an eye out for her children so that she can be happy again!” She puts her hands on her hips and puffs out her chest in determination. “She was really tall. And she called me ‘little kitten,’ just like you say, Kaoru!”

Kaoru chuckles nervously. “Oh, she did?”

“Yeah!” Kokoro says. “I guess I must resemble a kitten somehow, since multiple people have called me one.”

Misaki can practically feel Kaoru’s inward sigh of relief, and she has to suppress the urge to snort. Instead, she exchanges a knowing glance with Kanon, who simply smiles back at her. At least now she’s not the only one in the band with a secret identity, but she doubts Kaoru will ever figure that out.


End file.
